Masonic, Occult and Esoteric Online Library
Compassion - The Spirit of Truth
By Helena Petrovna Blavatsky
What Is The Voice
When you behold a sacred fire without form, Shining with a leaping splendour through the profundities of the whole world, Hear the voice of fire. — Chaldean Oracle
The Voice is the most stirring and mysterious of all Truths. The first [divine Instructor] initiated but a select few, and kept silence with the multitudes. [They recognized their “God” and each Adept felt the great “SELF” within himself.] The “Atman,” the Self, the mighty Lord and Protector, once that man knew him as the “I am,” the “Ego Sum,” the “Asmi,” showed his full power to him who could recognise the “still small voice.” From the days of the primitive man described by the first Vedic poet, down to our modern age, there has not been a philosopher worthy of that name, who did not carry in the silent sanctuary of his heart the grand and mysterious truth. If initiated, he learnt it as a sacred science; if otherwise, then, like Socrates, repeating to himself, as well as to his fellowmen, the noble injunction, “O man, know thyself,” he succeeded in recognizing his God within himself.2
It is the Voice of Wisdom crying in the wilderness of Matter. 3 And this is the record of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, Who art thou? And he confessed, and denied not; but confessed, I am not the Christ. And they asked him, What then? Art thou Elias? And he saith, I am not. Art thou that prophet? And he answered, No.
Then said they unto him, Who art thou? that we may give an answer to them that sent us. What sayest thou of thyself? He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Esaias.4
It is Logos’ eternal murmurings, . . . the undeniable presence of a living God in man himself 1 . . . may always be found present if a man does not extinguish within himself the capacity to perceive this Divine presence, and hear the “voice” of that only manifested deity, the murmurings of the Eternal Vach, called by the Northern and Chinese Buddhist Avalokiteshvara and Kuan-Shih-Yin,2 and by the Christians — Logos. 3
It is the Spirit-Voice of the Higher Self, the Buddhistic Daemon-Voice of Socrates, It is the divine voice of Self, or the “SpiritVoice” in man, and the same as Vachishvara (the “Voice-deity”) of the Brahmans. In China, the Buddhist ritualists have degraded its meaning by anthropomorphising it into a Goddess of the same name, with one thousand hands and eyes, and they call it Kuan-shihyin-Bodhisat. It is the Buddhist “daimon”- voice of Socrates.4
The Divine Voice of Kuanyin, coming from the melodious Heaven of Sound. Kan-yin-T’ien means the “melodious heaven of Sound,” the abode of Kuan-Yin, or the “Divine Voice” literally. This “Voice” is a synonym of the Verbum or the Word: “Speech,” as the expression of thought. . . . If Kuan-Yin is the “melodious Voice,” so is Vach; “the melodious cow who milked forth sustenance and water” (the female principle) — “who yields us nourishment and sustenance,” as Mother-Nature. . . . thus Vach and Kuan-yin are both the magic potency of Occult sound in Nature and Ether — which “Voice” calls forth Hsien-Chan, the illusive form of the Universe out of Chaos and the Seven Elements.5
It is Sound Eternal and universally diffused that speaks silently, The World’s Spiritual Self, the Hidden, Nameless Deity, the Unfathomable Father and Unknown God of the old Athenians. This divine power [Kuan-yin] was finally anthropomorphised by the Chinese Buddhist ritualists into a distinct double-sexed deity with a thousand hands and a thousand eyes, and called Kuan-shih-yin Bodhisattva, the VoiceDeity, but in reality meaning the voice of the ever-present latent divine consciousness in man; the voice of his real Self, which can be fully evoked and heard only through great moral purity. Hence Kuan-yin is said to be the son of Amitabha Buddha, who generated that Saviour, the merciful Bodhisattva, the “Voice” or the “Word” 1 that is universally diffused, the “Sound” which is eternal. It has the same mystical meaning as the Vach of the Brahmans.2 While the Brahmans maintain the eternity of the Vedas from the eternity of “sound,” the Buddhists claim by synthesis the eternity of Amitabha, since he was the first to prove the eternity of the Self-born, Kuan-yin. Kuan-yin is the Vachishvara or Voice-Deity of the Brahmans. Both proceed from the same origin as the Logos of the neo-platonic Greeks; the “manifested deity” and its “voice” being found in man’s Self, his conscience; Self being the unseen Father, and the “voice of Self” the Son; each being the relative and the correlative of the other.
It is the Voice of the Eternal Word. Oh marvellous! Oh worshipful! No song or sound is heard, But everywhere and every hour, In love, in wisdom, and in power, The Father speaks His dear Eternal Word! 4
It is the Voice of AthenaSophia and Gnostic Sophia, and of the Christian Holy Ghost. It is more or less common to all the Rays, but the first Ray has a Holy Ghost of its own — the Light of the Logos of the first Ray. That light is the emanation of the two principles of the Logos combined, that is, our Holy Ghost. That Holy Ghost is a matter of very little account to people in general, because only a man of the first Ray has to do with it. The Christian Holy Ghost is one of the elements that enter into Avalokiteshvara. It is one and yet divisible, and can put forth infinite variety of manifestations, because it is already in every man’s heart, whatever his Ray. It can only be appropriated by a man of that particular Ray, yet every man can claim its assistance, and every man is bound to accept its help before he passes the last Initiation. That is the reason why Buddhism and the first Ray have given rise to universal creeds. The other five Rays, though of course important, have not given rise to universal religions, because not applicable to all people.1
It may appear like the voice of a child, at least 12 years old. In the Logos there are about a dozen Gods and Goddesses. Keep Daiviprakriti [Fohat] separate and take the Logos as a whole. Then the Lady of the Lotus [Isis, or the “Little Girl” of the Idyll of the White Lotus] is Daiviprakriti. There is a difference in the ages of the little girls (of different Rays). Strictly speaking the smallest is the first Ray Light [of Logos]. Buddha’s is a little older. The first appears about 12 years old: when you get further on the appearance increases. The ages are 12, 16, 20, 24, 28, 32, 36. The smallest is the Gayatri. It is the most troublesome and the most powerful. In the appearance of the Logos there is a good deal of difference. The real appearance of the first Ray Logos is peculiar. It has all sorts of shapes, but when it does appear with all its powers it is a boy of 12 years old. Buddha always appears a boy not more than 16 years old.
Marcus 1 says It appeared to him in a female form. In his Revelation, speaking of divine mysteries expressed by means of letters and numbers, Marcus narrates how the “Supreme Tetrad came down unto me [him] from the region which cannot be seen nor named, in a female form, because the world would have been unable to bear her appearing under a male figure,” and revealed to him “the generation of the universe, untold before to either gods or men.”
Of course, the female form is entirely allegorical. The Sacred Voice is First Logos and thus above gender and anthropomorphic connotations. Yet, it was the “Vox populi, Vox Dei” of every nation and philosophy. This first sentence already contains a double meaning. Why should a female figure be more easily borne or listened to by the world than a male figure? On the very face of it this appears nonsensical. Withal it is quite simple and clear to one who is acquainted with the mystery language. Esoteric Philosophy, or the Secret Wisdom,2 was symbolised by a female form, while a male figure stood for the Unveiled mystery. Hence, the world not being ready to receive, could not bear it, and the Revelation of Marcus had to be given allegorically. 3
Once heard, It can never be forgotten. It is infallible, compelling, and must be obeyed. This is an infallible voice and must be obeyed. It comes but once and gives directions, and tells you the meaning of your own Ray, points out the path to your own Logos, and then goes away. It will not come before you are prepared for it. Some, when they hear it, think it is only some astral sound. Some think it is some astral sound in this Turiyanandam. It is that which The Upanishads say will be heard by the man who dies at Benares. It is the song of life, and only comes when you are in a condition as it were of torpor, and then it begins to whizz round you till you wake up.4
